Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat."

Psychologist Tara Cousineau draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to show how compassion and empathy are hardwired into our DNA and essential to our survival. This book teaches effective skills in compassion, mindfulness, and social and emotional learning, and reveals successful social policy initiatives in empathy taking place that inform everything from family life to education to the workplace.

It's easy to reach for frozen and microwavable meals when you're short on time, but being too busy shouldn't mean that you can't have balanced and delicious meals. Learning how to meal prep properly will not only save you time and energy, but it will also help to make sure that you and your family eat homemade and nutritious meals. Providing practical and simple solutions with easy to follow instructions, The Healthy Meal Prep Cookbook shows you how simple it is to enjoy fresh and flavorful meals on even the most hectic days.

"As the leader of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, one of America's largest and most important congregations, located in the heart of Los Angeles, Rabbi Leder has witnessed a lot of pain: "It's my phone that rings when people's bodies or lives fall apart," he writes. "The couch in my office is often drenched with tears." After 27 years of listening, comforting, and holding so many who suffered, he thought he understood pain and its challenges--but when it struck hard in his own life and brought him to his knees, a new understanding unfolded before him as he felt pain's profound effects on his body, spirit, and soul. In this elegantly concise, beautifully written, and deeply inspiring book, Rabbi Leder guides us through pain's stages of surviving, healing, and growing to help us all find meaning in our suffering. Drawing on his experience as a spiritual leader, the wisdom of ancient traditions, modern science, and stories from his own life and others', he shows us that when we must endure, we can, and that there is a path for each of us that leads from pain to wisdom. "Pain cracks us open," he writes. "It breaks us. But in the breaking, there is a new kind of wholeness." This powerful book will inspire in us all a life worthy of our suffering; a life gentler, wiser, and more beautiful than before."--Amazon.com.

A definitive, one-stop vegetarian cookbook showcases more than two thousand different recipes and variations for simple meatless meals, including salads, soups, eggs and dairy, vegetables and fruit, pasta, grains, legumes, tofu and other meat substitutes.

"The prize-winning PBS correspondent's provocative antidote to America's misguided approaches to K-12 school reform During his four-decade career at NPR and PBS, John Merrow reported from every state in the union, as well as from dozens of countries, ontopics including America's obsession with standardized testing, the low standards of many teacher-training institutions, how corporate greed created an epidemic of attention deficit disorder, and Michelle Rhee's indifference to cheating in Washington, D.C. Along the way, he taught in high school, a historically black college, and a federal penitentiary. Now, the revered education correspondent of PBS NewsHour distills his best thinking on American public education into a "twelve-step" approach to fixinga K-12 system that Merrow describes as being "addicted to reform" but unwilling to address the real issue: schools that are inappropriate for the twenty-first century. Covering topics from how to turn digital natives into digital citizens to why it should be harder to become a teacher but easier to be one, the twelve smart chapters in this book-including "Measure What Matters," "Ask the Right Question," and "Change Teaching"-form an astute and urgent blueprint for offering a quality education to every American child"-- Provided by publisher.

Two excerpts from never-before-seen notebooks offer insights into the author's literary mind and process and includes notes on her Sacramento upbringing, her life in the Gulf states, her views on prominent locals and her experiences during a formative "Rolling Stone" assignment.

Additional Resources

Missouri Evergreen is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provision of the Library Services and Technology Act as Administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.